Nail of the Week: OPI Simply Smashing w/OPI Black Shatter

Hello lovelies! I know I'm a little late, but better late than never right? Let me just update you on my life before I dive into nail of the week. I've been accepted to grad school! Yay me! The original plan was to start right after undergrad in 2005 but due to laziness and procrastination I'm finally starting six years later. Lemme just say I'm nervous as heck, I haven't been to school in forever and I heard grad school is quite intimidating. Not to mention I am not looking forward to taking quantitative analysis (scared face). I'm so not a numbers person, which is pretty funny since I'm doing the finance concentration for my MBA program which is all about numbers, smh.  Just promise me you guys will wish me much luck because I'm soooo going to need it.



Ok now to the fun stuff, my nails! Serena Williams, who I absolutely adore, released the Serena Williams for OPI Grand Slam collection this past January which consisted of a nail polish in Simply Smashing and Black Shatter. The Black Shatter is a top coat that you layer on top of another polish, preferably a lighter color, that crackles or "shatters" to produce a leopard print like pattern on the nail. I didn't even know that Serena was a certified nail technician. Tennis pro and business guru, do ya thing Serena. Here's a picture of the Grand Slam Collection.

Katy Perry, who I also love,  has a collaboration with OPI. The OPI Katy Perry Collection also consists of a bottle of the beloved Black Shatter and four other colors, Last Friday Night, Not Like the Movies, The One That Got Away and Teenage Dream.

I purchased the Grand Slam Collection in February for $14 bucks at Ulta and I'm just now getting around to using it. So here's what it looks like on the nails:

So Simply Smashing is a very peculiar color and I really cant think of any other polish to compare it to. It's a shimmery yellow green with a metallic finish. I have to admit, on its own I do not care for it at all. It really reminded me of vomit ( I know that was gross I couldn't think of another way to describe it). I guess the concept for the color was inspired by a tennis ball. It went on super sheer so I used 4 coats of polish (yes 4, ugh)  to get the color completely opaque. Now layered with the Black Shatter, the combo is hot. The metallic yellow green really pops under the shatter polish which dries to a matte uneven finish. The trick to applying the black shatter is to work fast and only go over the nail with one coat. If you layer coats of the shatter polish its going to be a hot mess. To finish the look I sealed the design with Seche Vite top coat. Overall I am loving the shatter. Simply Smashing, not so much. Black Shatter will look best over colors that are lighter in color and you can use any color so you can definitely experiment with it. I love Black Shatter its so edgy and punk and definitely adds flair to the typical boring manicure.

The Shatter craze must have really hit hard because the fabulous Serena Williams is releasing another Shatter collection to coincide with the French Open in May which consists of 2 duo packs Spark de Triomphe with White Shatter and Rally Pretty Pink with Red Shatter. In addition OPI is also releasing 3 more shatter colors in Blue Turquoise, Navy Blue and Primary Blue.

Shatter has definitely taken over the manicure world. Have any of you tried Black Shatter and are you looking forward to the new collections coming out? Welp nite nite beauties I'm gonna go curl up with my yorkie and get some Zzzzs.

Kisses!

Von